KION Group has maintained the positive business performance seen in the first half of the year. The company remains on course for success and, against the tense situation in the procurement markets, believes that it is well positioned with the outlook for 2021.

For the last nine months, KION's order intake rose 33.9% to EUR8.989 billion (USD10.4 billion). The group's order book has grown by 34.7% compared with the end of 2020.

Consolidated revenue rose 25.6% to EUR7.534 billion in the first nine months of 2021 (USD8.74 billion).

The robust business performance was also reflected in the number of employees worldwide, which increased by 2,750 (7.6%) to almost 39,000 full-time equivalents in the first three quarters of this year.

"The KION Group generated rapid growth in the first nine months of 2021 and more than made up for the adverse impact of coronavirus in 2020. Although there are considerable challenges in connection with the availability of materials and the increase in raw material prices this year will lead to higher material costs, we expect to achieve the ambitious targets that we have set for 2021 as a whole," says Gordon Riske, group chief executive officer.

"We strengthened our position with a wealth of new products, equity investments in software companies and groundbreaking technology partnerships," he adds. These include the 20% stake in ifesca GmbH, a software firm specialising in the energy industry. The KION Group has also joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics to establish a joint Enterprise Lab in which the autonomous vehicle swarm known as Load Runner will be developed to market-readiness. The use of AI-based swarm technology should make it possible to achieve a higher speed and greater sorting capacity than with conventional systems.

Riske notes that the global market for forklifts and warehouse trucks saw strong growth compared with the prior-year period, which had been adversely affected by the pandemic. The number of new truck orders rose by 54.1% percent to 1,768,000 units.

All regions contributed to this growth. In the Asia Pacific, the number of new trucks ordered went up by 39.9%, EMEA new orders were up by 61.6%, while the Americas region (North, Central, and South America) registered growth of 81.1%.

The group believes the coronavirus pandemic has provided a boost to the supply chain solutions market, with strong investment in warehouse automation and robotics solutions.

Looking ahead, the KION Group anticipates that it will achieve the targets for 2021 that it raised in the middle of the year.

However, Riske points out that although the outlook remains positive, there is still uncertainty in the economic environment. The KION Group particularly sees risks in relation to commodity prices and the availability of intermediate products.